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The Mesa Land Trust celebrated a significant milestone this week, along with additional good news that it received a $400,000 grant to help preserve land and wildlife.
The grant, from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, will go toward buying an easement from a Mesa County ranching family, said Mesa Land Trust Executive Director Rob Bleiberg.
The land trust is negotiating to purchase an easement for a 3,758-acre parcel on Piņon Mesa in Glade Park, a “significant portion of a larger ranch” that’s been in the same family since the 1940s, Bleiberg said.
The easement has a $5 million value; some of the total will be donated by the land’s owner, Bleiberg said.
With this new easement, the land trust surpassed a 50,000-acre milestone. Protecting more than 50,000 acres makes the Mesa Land Trust one of the most successful and active local conservation organizations in the intermountain West, Bleiberg said.
“This milestone really sets us apart,” Bleiberg said.
The Glade Park easement represents “some of the best wildlife habitat, ag lands and scenic areas,” he said. “By protecting this much ground, we are really making a difference in our effort to conserve our community’s quality of life and our agricultural and wildlife heritage.”
Placing land in conservation easement prevents the land from being developed.
Because the details of the Glade Park easement are still being negotiated, its exact location and the names of the land’s owners are being withheld, Bleiberg said.
This autumn, the land trust hopes to close on 10 more conservation land transactions “all over the community,” Bleiberg said.
Those include land in Plateau Valley, Unaweep Canyon, orchards near Palisade and more, he said.
“Think of some of our best open lands,” he said. “A lot of these properties are highly visible. They are well-known to the community.”
The Mesa Land Trust:
• has more than 125 binding conservation agreements.
• conserved 2,200 acres in the Grand Valley, 12,795 acres in the Plateau Valley, 35,265 acres on Glade Park and Piņon Mesa, 1,826 acres in Unaweep Canyon and the Dolores River watershed and 263 acres along the Gunnison River and Kannah Creek.
• conserved 772 acres of orchards, vineyards and wildlife habitat.
• was founded in 1980. It has a 16-member volunteer board of directors and employs seven full-time staff members.
Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.
The grant, from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, will go toward buying an easement from a Mesa County ranching family, said Mesa Land Trust Executive Director Rob Bleiberg.
The land trust is negotiating to purchase an easement for a 3,758-acre parcel on Piņon Mesa in Glade Park, a “significant portion of a larger ranch” that’s been in the same family since the 1940s, Bleiberg said.
The easement has a $5 million value; some of the total will be donated by the land’s owner, Bleiberg said.
With this new easement, the land trust surpassed a 50,000-acre milestone. Protecting more than 50,000 acres makes the Mesa Land Trust one of the most successful and active local conservation organizations in the intermountain West, Bleiberg said.
“This milestone really sets us apart,” Bleiberg said.
The Glade Park easement represents “some of the best wildlife habitat, ag lands and scenic areas,” he said. “By protecting this much ground, we are really making a difference in our effort to conserve our community’s quality of life and our agricultural and wildlife heritage.”
Placing land in conservation easement prevents the land from being developed.
Because the details of the Glade Park easement are still being negotiated, its exact location and the names of the land’s owners are being withheld, Bleiberg said.
This autumn, the land trust hopes to close on 10 more conservation land transactions “all over the community,” Bleiberg said.
Those include land in Plateau Valley, Unaweep Canyon, orchards near Palisade and more, he said.
“Think of some of our best open lands,” he said. “A lot of these properties are highly visible. They are well-known to the community.”
The Mesa Land Trust:
• has more than 125 binding conservation agreements.
• conserved 2,200 acres in the Grand Valley, 12,795 acres in the Plateau Valley, 35,265 acres on Glade Park and Piņon Mesa, 1,826 acres in Unaweep Canyon and the Dolores River watershed and 263 acres along the Gunnison River and Kannah Creek.
• conserved 772 acres of orchards, vineyards and wildlife habitat.
• was founded in 1980. It has a 16-member volunteer board of directors and employs seven full-time staff members.
Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.
